"The pastor also does not have to register as a sex offender under the agreement’s terms."
(from an AL.COM story about a former Alabama minister who raped a 14 year old girl when he was 24, who reached a plea deal with prosecutors allowing him to avoid registering and avoid jail time too. Could anybody other than a minister get away with that in Alabama?)
The ABC-TV crew members who worked on The Wonder Years reboot in Montgomery last week were keeping one eye on union negotiations that had stalled, with a strike set to begin tomorrow if no agreement was reached.
But the threat ended on Saturday, and if the union members agree, a new three-year contract will go into effect.
WSB-TV reported the agreement last night:
Earlier this week, a metro Atlanta film worker agreed to speak with Channel 2′s Justin Wilfon but requested his name remain anonymous. He says the workers want to get paid more and not be forced to work excessive hours anymore.
“Some of them have dealt with divorce. Some of them have regret on missing key moments in their children’s lives. I’m actually expecting my first kid in February so it’s starting to hit a little closer to home,” he said.
Wilfon also spoke with Kate Fortmueller, who is a UGA assistant professor of entertainment and media studies. She said film crews often work 12- to14-hour days.
I am not a union member, but I experienced some of those long hours last week working as background (i.e. extra) on the new Wonder Years series.
I've only barely worked on posts for this website and my companion photography website this week...with good reason!
I was able to take part in the Montgomery filming of the remake of The Wonder Years. Unlike my small speaking role in Son of The South last year, my participation in this ABC TV show was strictly as a member of the "herd" of background actors.
We filmed in several locations (including at the Fair and inside sets created in closed off parts of Eastdale Mall) for episodes of the show that should air in late November and/or in December. I'll report on the dates more on this website when I know them!
My position was paid, and let me tell you I earned every penny of it!
I was on set four days this past week, sometimes for as long as thirteen hours and sometimes as early as 6:00AM.
There were long stretches of time when we were basically "on hold" between scenes. And during those times I enjoyed talking with many of my fellow extras, many of them Montgomery residents.
Here are some publicity photos of the new Wonder Years, which airs on ABC 32 Wednesday nights at 7:30.
and we were tested frequently too!)
Fewer than half of the vaccine doses have been distributed in Alabama....next to lowest rate in the country. (Thanks West Virginia!)
(See the full ratings HERE.)
Unless you live in a suburban subdivision, with buried cables, you likely have utility poles on your street.
Many of them are made of wood
They support power lines (many of the poles here in Alabama are owned by Alabama Power. The company then leases space on the poles to other entities, including to cable TV and other communication firms.)
Nothing lasts forever, though, and that includes the poles.
Alabama Power tells me the poles are inspected every six yeas or so, and if need be, they are replaced. The pole at my house survived at least several of those inspections...till this year when it was marked for replacement.
Here are some photos of the process...a utility aerial ballet is one way to describe it, as dual lift trucks allow multiple workers to move the power lines from the old pole to the new pole.
"In addition to the inspection, other reasons also exist for replacing poles – example: need for a taller pole to accommodate spacing for additional equipment or if a Joint Use partner (Cable or phone) needs additional spacing on the pole so they can install additional facilities."
Alapowco Spokesman Mike Jordan
The website Motor1.com reports Hyundai wants to position a video screen right in the center of the steering wheel!
From CNN story:
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee all have less than a third of eligible adolescents fully vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis, as do North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming. And that could pose a greater challenge moving forward, experts warn."Once again you have this geographic divide where parents are holding back on vaccinating their adolescents, and I have to believe they will probably hold back on vaccinating the younger kids as well," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told CNN.
The former VP is headed to Montgomery to raise money for Faulkner University this Thursday...just as evidence points to his role overturning the 2020 election becomes clearer.
The Washington Post reports:
"The true contours of this emerge from a New York Times excavation of the role of John Eastman, the lawyer who wrote the Trump coup memo. It outlined how Pence supposedly could exercise unilateral power (that he did not have) over the process to refuse to count President-elect Joe Biden’s electors, throwing the election to Trump.
Buried in that piece is an important revelation: Pence apparently went further than previously known in probing whether he could execute a version of Eastman’s scheme.
The select committee will be fleshing this out, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the committee, suggested in an interview.
“It’s an important part of the historical record to determine how close Trump actually came to achieving his scheme of getting Pence to declare unilateral power to reject electoral college votes,” Raskin told me."
If Pence follows the regular Faulkner procedure---as he surely will---media restrictions will make sure Pence is not asked any difficult questions...if any questions at all.
It's interesting that in this Trumplandia part of America, he would not have been dis-invited.
David Rothery with ESA's Mercury Surface and Composition Working Group: "It has made me even more enthusiastic to study the top quality science data that we should get when we are in orbit around Mercury, because this is a planet that we really do not yet fully understand."
(I might point out that "we don't yet fully understand" Earth!)
I went to U.S. Army Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina back in 1969. But Montgomery is an Air Force town, home to Maxwell AFB. So I thought this video about USAF Basic Training might be of interest!
From a John Legend News Release:
This national initiative includes an executive fellowship program, in partnership with FUSE Corps, a national nonprofit with a decade of experience in this field, that will place executive fellows in 11 communities: Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Durham, Houston, Los Angeles,Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. -- cities and counties that collectively represent over 20 million people. These fellows will work with local communities, while working towards sustainable and equitable policies in the areas of jobs, housing, education, health, and the criminal justice system.
“We’ve started an initiative called HUMANLEVEL where local governments have invited us to work on specific projects to make their communities stronger and more equitable. Many of the problems our country faces today are difficult to address at the federal level. Many issues are really at the doorstep of your mayor, your county council, and your community leaders coming together to answer questions about how we can support each other, keep each other safe, and rebuild our country in a way that truly includes everyone.” said John Legend.HERE is a Washington Post interview with Legend about the project.
